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ISSUEISSUE 42,42, PUBLISHEDPUBLISHED 2525 APRILAPRIL 20202020 AustralasianAustralasian JournalJournal ofof HerpetologyHerpetology ISSN 1836-5698 (Print) ISSN 1836-5779 (Online) CONTENTS ON PAGE 2 2 Australasian Journal of Herpetology Australasian Journal of Herpetology Issue 42, 25 April 2020. Contents From a putative new taxon to a mutt! Formal descriptions of three new genetically divergent Mountain Pygmy Possums from Victoria and New South Wales closely associated with Burramys parvus Broom, 1896. ... Raymond T. Hoser, 3-10. Small and overlooked … six new species of Pygmy Possum, Genus Cercartetus Gloger, 1841 sensu lato from the Australasian bioregion. ... Raymond T. Hoser, 11-22. A new subgenus, three new species and one new subspecies of Ring-tailed Possums (Marsupialia: Petauridae) from the north of Australia. ... Raymond T. Hoser, 23-30. Small, easily overlooked and in decline. Potoroos in Eastern Australia. A formal division of the genus Potorous Desmarest, 1804 (Marsupialia Potoroidae) and the description of a new species from south-east Queensland. ... Raymond T. Hoser, 31-37. A new subspecies of Yellow-bellied Glider (Marsupialia: Petauridae) from far north Queensland, Australia. ... Raymond T. Hoser, 38-41. The ability to conserve a threatened species begins when they are named! New species of Rock Wallaby (Marsupialia: Macropodidae: Petrogale) from northern Australia. ... Raymond T. Hoser, 42-49. An overdue refinement of the taxonomy of the Australian Ring Tailed Dragons, Genus Ctenophorus Fitzinger, 1843, Subgenus Tachyon Wells and Wellington, 1985, including the formal descriptions of eight new species. ... Raymond T. Hoser, 50-64. Front cover photo: Raymond Hoser. Alpine habitat for Mountain Pygmy Possums (Burramys sp.) adjacent to Mount Hotham, Victoria. Australasian Journal of Herpetology ® Publishes original research in printed form in relation to reptiles, other fauna and related matters, including classification, ecology, public interest, legal, captivity, “academic misconduct”, etc. It is a peer reviewed printed journal published in hard copy for permanent public scientific record in accordance with the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (Ride et al. 1999), with sizeable print run and global audience and high impact. Full details at: http://www.herp.net ISSN 1836-5698 (Print) Copyright. All rights reserved. ISSN 1836-5779 (Online) Australasian Journal of Herpetology is also a registered trademark ® in all relevant areas and jurisdictions (Australian trademark number: 1686575). All Intellectual Property (IP) rights are reserved, including in relation to all IP generated by the journal in Hoser 2016 - Australasian Journal of Herpetology 40. terms of both authors, publisher and the like. Online journals (this issue) do Availablenot appear for online a month at after www.herp.net the actual and listed publication date of the printed journals. MinimumCopyright- print run Kotabi of first Publishingprintings is always - All at rightsleast fifty reserved hard copies. Australasian Journal of Herpetology 3 Australasian Journal of Herpetology 42:3-10. Published 25 April 2020. ISSN 1836-5698 (Print) ISSN 1836-5779 (Online) From a putative new taxon to a mutt! Formal descriptions of three new genetically divergent Mountain Pygmy Possums from Victoria and New South Wales closely associated with Burramys parvus Broom, 1896. LSID urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:B5F27303-4481-4E44-9EEF-26747C600803 RAYMOND T. HOSER LSID urn:lsid:zoobank.org:author:F9D74EB5-CFB5-49A0-8C7C-9F993B8504AE 488 Park Road, Park Orchards, Victoria, 3134, Australia. Phone: +61 3 9812 3322 Fax: 9812 3355 E-mail: snakeman (at) snakeman.com.au Received 28 March 2020, Accepted 2 April 2020, Published 25 April 2020. ABSTRACT The iconic Mountain Pygmy Possum Burramys parvus Broom, 1896, was originally described from Pleistocene fossil material obtained near Taralga, New South Wales. Since then, living specimens of the same putative species have been found in alpine areas of New South Wales and Victoria broadly coinciding with the major ski resorts in each state. Presumption that these living animals are conspecific with the type material in the Australian Museum in Sydney has been made by all publishing zoologists to date in the absence of genetic evidence. Molecular evidence published by Osborne et al. (2000), implied divergences in the three main extant populations of up to 680,000 years before present, which they stated “conflicts with conclusions reached by Ride and Davies (1997), that the extant populations of B. parvus are remnants of a species that had a more contiguous distribution as recently as 18 000 years ago.” Significantly Mitrovski et al. (2007) wrote “From a conservation perspective, all three areas where B. parvus are found should be considered as separate gene pools” implying the need for each to have taxonomic recognition. Strahan (1988) also suggested subspecies level recognition for the regional populations of putative B. parvus. Following on from these works, this paper takes a conservative position and formally names all three known extant races as subspecies, separate from the fossil type material. Unfortunately, in 2008, the government-owned “Zoos Victoria” business cross-bred Mount Hotham and Mount Buller animals at their facility at Healesville and along with translocation of specimens from Mount Hotham to Mount Buller had by 2012 successfully created a cohort of at least 50% of trapped wild Mount Buller specimens (9 of 18) as hybrids (Menkhorst et al. 2016), signifying that as of 2020, the pure Mount Buller lineage is probably extinct. In other words all Burramys at Mount Buller are effectively Mutts! Formal naming of the pure Mount Buller form (based on previously lodged material in the Museum of Victoria) and the Bogong Plains form (including Mount Hotham) and the main population from the Alps in New South Wales will hopefully help to prevent any other ill-conceived attempts to further mix these taxonomically distinct and allopatric populations. Keywords: Mammals; Marsupial; taxonomy; nomenclature; Pygmy Possum; Burramys; parvus; Mount Buller; Mount Hotham; Victoria; New South Wales; new subspecies; hosersbogensis; timdalei; scottyjamesi. Hoser 2020 - Australasian Journal of Herpetology 42:3-10. Available online at www.herp.net Copyright- Kotabi Publishing - All rights reserved 4 Australasian Journal of Herpetology INTRODUCTION as subspecies. The iconic Mountain Pygmy Possum Burramys parvus Broom, I go further and also formally name the northern form from the 1896, was originally described from Pleistocene fossil material Kosciuszko region of New South Wales as another subspecies obtained at Wombeyan Caves near Mittagong in the New South on the basis of morphological differences in the jaw between all Wales Southern Highlands in 1895 (Broom 1896). living forms and the type fossil material (see also Broom 1896 A living animal, believed to be of the same species was who used the type material for examination, and Brammall and discovered at Mount Hotham Ski Resort in Victoria in 1966, and Archer 1997, who used a Victorian specimen for review populations of the same putative species were subsequently purposes). discovered in the Kosciuszko region of NSW in 1970 and at the Unfortunately, in 2008, and following an internal review of the Mount Buller Ski resort in 1996 (Calaby et al. 1971, Mansergh Mount Buller population, the government-owned “Zoos Victoria” and Broome 1994, Heinz and Williams 1998). business in conjunction with the State Wildlife Department that controls them, caught a number of wild specimens and cross- Further fossil remains attributed to the same putative species bred Mount Hotham and Mount Buller animals at their facility at were recovered from caves at Buchan Victoria and south-west of Healesville. Sydney in New South Wales (Jenolan Caves) and were treated as suggesting that at the height of the last Pleistocene glacial Along with translocation of specimens from Mount Hotham to period (ca. 20,000 years bp) a single species of Mountain Mount Buller, they had by 2012 successfully created a cohort of Pygmy-possum had a much wider distribution around the at least 50% of trapped wild Mount Buller specimens (9 of 18) as snowline of south-eastern Australia (Ride and Davies 1997). hybrids (Menkhorst et al. 2016), signifying that as of 2020, the It has been generally assumed that since that glacial maximum pure Mount Buller lineage is probably extinct. receded, the range of the putative species has been contracting In other words all Burramys at Mount Buller are effectively Mutts! with a gradually warming climate and receding snowline The alleged basis of the action by “Zoos Victoria” for creating the (Caughley 1986; Mansergh and Broome 1994). Mutt population at Mount Buller was due to a potentially In line with the preceding, the presumption that these living misguided belief that the Mount Buller population was in animals are conspecific with the type material in the Australian immediate danger of extinction and in their view too small to be Museum in Sydney has been made by all publishing zoologists viable in the long term and therefore needed greater genetic to date in the absence of genetic evidence. diversity in the form of an infusion from the Mount Hotham However molecular evidence published by Osborne et al. population. (2000), implied divergences in the three main extant populations The scientific basis for the belief that the Mount Buller of up to 680,000 years before present, which they stated
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